Skipvia--and yarb--I think my cultural illiteracy is showing. I hereby confess: I have never read Conrad, nor have I (gasp!) read Melville. I'd be lame if I added those names without really knowing anything about the ships... wouldn't I?

No, no, I meant Minerva. I can't remind you too much about it without giving away a great plot secret, and I want people to read those books so I won't give it away. Anyway it was Jack Shaftoe's ship.

Yeah, I remember Queen Anne's Revenge because when I was in fifth grade, I read this cheapo Scholastic book called PIRATES, like, five times in a row. I remember because my brother said "Why are you rereading the same book?! You could've read that one, and then four other ones!" But you know, I had that book almost memorized. I remember a lot of useless facts from it (who knows how true they are, now that I know how books get written!), and I wouldn't trade those memories of curling up with a book I knew was good, for the world. :)

*gingerly* How about the ships from Billy Budd--the Rights-of-Man and the Indomitable? I'm pretty sure Melville was going for some symbolism here, but I just can't seem to fathom it. (Har!)

Here's something you might enjoy, from Wikipedia. The early drafts of Billy Budd called the ship Indomitable, but Melville intended to change it to Bellipotent--from bella (war) and potens (power). The symbolism becomes a bit more clear...

Yes I do, very much. But I prefer the land-based novels - The Secret Agent, Nostromo, Under Western Eyes - to the saltier ones. Sometimes I think Conrad gets a bit carried away with his sailors' yarns.

Oh no! Now I can't remember the name of the awesome ship in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle! Someone help! You know the ship I'm talking about? (I don't want to post a spoiler on here.) The one that half-cocked Jack and his buds sail back to Europe?

The Resolution was Cook's ship on his second and third voyages; I think it was the first ship to cross the Antarctic circle. Endeavour was Cook's ship on his first voyage.

*SPOILER*

The Patna in Conrad's "Lord Jim" is a steamer bound for Araby with a load of 600 pilgrims on the hajj. The ship is disabled by a submerged object and Jim, in a moment of moral crisis, joins the other crew in abandoning her and her human cargo, in the certain belief that she will go to the bottom. The Patna is in fact taken under tow by a French naval vessel and Jim's dereliction is exposed, branding him with a mark of disgrace which he is unable to shake off.

"The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails, and was at rest" is the opening sentence of Conrad's "Heart of Darkness". Although the ship doesn't feature in the story, for some reason I can never forget its name.

Of course there are countless fictional ships and you have to exercise discrimination, but I think these two, certainly the Patna, merit inclusion.

Resolution? I thought his ship was called the Endeavour? (which is on the list)

Sloop John B., check! Can you elaborate on the other two? I've not heard of those.

SKIPVIA!! Bite your tongue! It was the C.S.S. Virginia! (which is already on the list) Merrimack was its name before the Confederacy made it an ironclad. Hence the famous battle should rightly be said to have been between "the Monitor and the Virginia."